


5 Times Coulson Comforted Skye (And One Time She Comforted Him)

by Persiflage



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 5 Times, Canon-Typical Violence, Cuddling & Snuggling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Related, Episode Tag, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene, Older Man/Younger Woman, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-25
Updated: 2014-10-25
Packaged: 2018-02-22 12:58:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,905
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2508725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflage/pseuds/Persiflage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 occasions (mostly canon-compliant) on which Coulson comforted Skye, and 1 occasion when she comforted him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	5 Times Coulson Comforted Skye (And One Time She Comforted Him)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tayryn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tayryn/gifts), [Wolfsbride](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfsbride/gifts).



> I was re-watching The Bridge, and wished Coulson had knocked on Skye's bunk door before he heard her crying - and then this fic happened. Aside from the first part, the other four occasions fit in with episodes (1:10 - The Bridge; 1:11 - The Magical Place; 1:12 - Seeds; 2:03 - Making Friends and Influencing People; 2:05 - A Hen in the Wolf House). Part 6 is pure speculation (although I'd already got it right about the symbols being a map!) and follows on from 2:05.
> 
> This fic shows Skye crying a lot - but don't think for one minute that means I think she's weak, because I think she is a most BAMF badass . Crying doesn't make you weak - it just means you're overwhelmed. Crying is healthy.

**One**

As he came down the spiral staircase from his office, Coulson could see Skye in her bunk, tearing up sheets of paper, and he descended more rapidly, a frown of concern on his face. He crossed towards her bunk just as she closed the door, and he hesitated for a moment, then knocked.

"Go away."

Her voice sounded choked, he thought, and he wondered what had happened.

"Skye," he called softly. "It's Coulson."

There was a lengthy pause, then the door opened part way, and he slipped inside, immediately closing it again behind him.

"What's wrong?" he asked, worried by the tears that were beginning to fall.

"Nothing," she answered, and he crouched down beside the bed on which she sat hunched over, as if in physical pain.

"I don't believe you," he told her gently. "You're not the type to cry over nothing, Skye. What's happened?"

He glanced down as he spoke and saw that the torn papers scattered across the floor were the printouts she'd made of the agents who might have dropped her off at the orphanage when she was a baby.

He frowned, then looked up at Skye, who was sobbing properly now.

He shifted into a kneeling position, then carefully placed a hand on her back. "Skye?"

She lurched upwards and threw her arms around his neck, and he immediately wrapped his own arms around her, letting her sob on his shoulder despite the inevitable ruin of his shirt collar.

Eventually the storm died down and he pulled back from her far enough to get his handkerchief from his pocket.

"Here."

"Thanks."

It came out as a croak, and she swallowed audibly.

"Do you want some water?" he asked.

"There's a bottle in my bag," she told him.

He glanced around and saw her bag in the corner by the door, and he tried not to wince audibly as he got to his feet with a protest from his knees, and grabbed the bottle.

He passed it to her and she took it, then he sat down beside her on the bed.

"What, or who, has upset you?" he asked.

"Agent May." 

She said it with obvious reluctance and he lifted an eyebrow. "Agent May? What did she do?"

Skye told him quietly, between mopping at her eyes, and he felt his initial irritation turning to outright annoyance at May's behaviour.

When she had finished, Coulson put a hand on her forearm and squeezed it gently. "I'll talk to May," he promised. "She had no business reprimanding you like that."

"Perhaps I should just forget about trying to find out about my folks."

She sounded so defeated, he thought, and lost as well.

"No," he said firmly, and she looked up at him, surprise blooming in her dark eyes. "You're not giving up, and neither am I. I said I would help you to find some answers, and I will."

"What about Agent May?" Skye asked, her tone worried.

"She's under my orders," he told her. "So leave her to me. And remember this – I have no doubts or worries about your reasons for being here. I chose to invite you aboard, and anyone who thinks you shouldn't be here can tell me so to my face, and I'll set them straight."

"Thank you, Coulson." 

She threw her arms around him again and he hugged her back briefly, then said, "You should get some rest. A nap would make you feel better after all that emotional outpouring. And we've got a couple of hours until we arrive."

She nodded, then held out his handkerchief.

"Keep it. I've got others."

"Thanks."

He smiled at her, then brushed a stray lock of hair from her face, before cupping her cheek in his hand. He forced himself not to lean in and kiss her, though there was nothing he wanted more right at the moment.

"Get some rest," he repeated, then got to his feet and let himself out of Skye's bunk.

He headed towards the cockpit, intending to have words with May. If he concentrated on his anger, maybe he could crowd out any thoughts of kissing Skye.

**Two**

Coulson tried to take in what he was being told, but it wasn't easy: Simmons was cleaning the blood off his face, and generally checking him over, and babbling about how brilliant Skye had been, with Fitz chipping in every other sentence. In addition, Ward was telling him all about Agent Hand's attitude, and her insistence on throwing Skye off the plane, and how clever Skye had been – although he didn't have any details about just how she'd managed to find out where Coulson was being held when her internet nanny bracelet meant she couldn't use a phone or a computer _at all_. 

On the whole he was quite relieved to escape the lab and the babble of competing voices to ensure that Raina was taken away, and to say goodbye to Agent Hand. 

By the time he turned around May and Skye had reappeared, and joined the other three at the top of the ramp, and he wasted no time in thanking them for coming after him. Whatever Skye had done, it was obvious that she was the reason he was safe and relatively sound back aboard the Bus, and while he thanked them all, he kept glancing at Skye.

"I heard what you did for me," he told her after the others had gone back to work. "Thank you. I think it's time we removed this." He took her right wrist in both his hands and lifted it up, noticing the way her eyes widened as he bent forward. "Disengage bracelet." 

It beeped, flashing blue, and he lifted it away as Skye said, "Are you kidding me?"

He smirked. "I thought you'd like that," he observed.

"Back in that room, did they learn anything?" She looked so concerned that he immediately knew he couldn't tell her the truth.

"No." He tried to smile reassuringly at her, but she didn't look very comforted.

"Did you?" When he didn't answer, she lifted her eyebrows and said in a lower tone. "I heard what you were saying."

He swallowed, then shook his head. "It wasn't real." He could see she didn't really believe him, and she looked on the verge of tears, and he shook his head again. "They were just messing with my head. But I appreciate your concern."

She gave a little nod, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes as if to fend off the tears, and prove to him that she could be professional about such things. Then she turned away and he watched her head to her bunk before he made his way to the cockpit to tell May that he wanted to make a quick side trip.

AC-S-AC-S-AC

After his conversation with Dr Streiten, Coulson returned to the Bus, deep in thought. Streiten's news had horrified him on many levels, but at the same time, he felt relief that he knew what had happened to him after Loki had torn up his heart. He let May know he was back on board, then headed to the lounge, deciding that he wanted a drink before he went to bed.

He didn't bother with the lights since he knew he way around well enough to find the bar and a bottle of Scotch. It wasn't until he'd already poured his drink that he realised that the lounge was not completely empty.

"Skye? What are you doing here?"

She was back in her plaid shirt and jeans, sitting cross-legged on the couch with her laptop on her lap.

"Couldn't sleep," she told him, glancing up at him only briefly before returning her attention to the screen. "Thought I'd take advantage of my new freedom to do some catching up."

He put a coaster down on the table, then set his glass on top of it, before taking a seat beside her. "Dare I ask what?"

She gave him a slightly pained look. "I'm not hacking SHIELD," she told him.

"I didn't presume you were," he observed mildly, and saw a flush of colour stealing into her cheeks.

"Sorry." She angled the laptop towards him. "I was checking up on Ace Peterson."

He leaned in, his shoulder brushing against hers as he peered at the screen and saw it was a video feed showing Ace and his aunt Mindy, who was talking to a couple of police officers. 

"This is from two days ago," she told him, "when Mike's sister was told that Mike had been killed." She sighed. "It won't be easy for Ace."

Coulson looked up at her face as he registered the melancholy tone of her voice. "We'll keep an eye on him," he promised, clasping her wrist lightly. "As well as we can, anyway."

"Thanks." She closed the laptop, then set it on the coffee table alongside his glass. "Will that help?" She nodded at it.

He raised an eyebrow at her question. "You don't approve?"

"It's not that," she said quickly. "It's just – " She paused and he saw she was biting her lip.

"Just what, Skye?" he asked softly.

"You sounded so broken and so scared, AC," she whispered. "Back in that room. I don't know what they showed you, but I hate to think of you having nightmares." She turned towards him and he saw tears shining in her eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner."

"Hey," he said gently, sliding an arm around her shoulders as she began to cry silently. "From what Ward, and FitzSimmons, and May have all told me you did an absolutely fantastic job of finding me at all. The way Ward and May tell it, I'd still be back in that room if you hadn't been so determined to track down Raina, despite the handicap Agent Hand landed you with. I'm really glad that you did find me, so don't feel you have to apologise for not doing it sooner."

"I'm sorry," she said, wiping at her tears with the back of her hand. "That's twice today, and I didn't mean to make a habit of blubbing on you." She sounded embarrassed, but he didn't feel any discomfort.

"It's okay, Skye," he said softly. "You've had quite a full day."

"So've you," she told him. "But you're not blubbing everywhere."

He shook his head. "Would you rather I did?"

"No," she said immediately. "It's just – " She broke off and shook her head.

"I don't think any less of you for being upset," he said, giving her shoulder a squeeze, then kissing the top of her head. "I think you should go and get some rest now, though."

"Okay." She straightened up, then reached up and brushed his right eyebrow with her thumb. He gave her a puzzled look, and she smiled at him a little shyly, then brushed her thumb down his cheek before withdrawing her hand. "I'm glad you're okay, AC."

"I am," he confirmed. He watched as she picked up her laptop, then made her way out of the lounge. Once she was gone he picked up his Scotch and took a deep swallow, feeling slightly shaken by the intensity of his own emotions in the wake of Skye's touch: it had only been brief, but it had felt electric, and he told himself he should go to bed, too, and not contemplate going after Skye.

**Three**

As May brought the plane down into the eye of the storm, Coulson kept a tight grip on Skye's hand. She wasn't crying any longer, but he could tell she wasn't really with them at the moment, not that he blamed her: the news he'd given her was devastating and he was half amazed that she wasn't curled up in a ball in her bunk. He'd known from day one that she was a fighter, but her determination and courage continued to surprise him, even though he supposed he should be used to it by now. 

He had a feeling May wouldn't approve of the fact that he'd told Skye that she was an 084, and that dozens of people had died to protect her, but he didn't much care about May's disapproval – telling Skye had been the right thing to do. True, he might not have thought so before he found out what Fury had done to him following the Battle of New York, but knowing what Fury had kept from him, he couldn't justify keeping such personal information from Skye.

As soon as the Bus was down, Coulson released Skye's hand, then his straps and he followed FitzSimmons out of the back of the Bus to see Donnie bent over another young man. He helped to carry the young man inside, and grabbed the medical equipment Simmons had asked for, but even as he rushed about he kept half an eye on Skye, and was relieved to see that she was fully engaged in what was going on.

After the excitement was over, and Donnie had been taken off, Coulson went in search of Skye: he didn't want her to feel she couldn't talk to him, if she needed to, and he especially didn't want her to feel alone.

Walking through the lounge he ran into May drinking hot chocolate, and he only lingered long enough to tell her how Skye had taken his news. 

"She's a tough kid," May commented when he'd finished.

"But not unbreakable," he said quickly.

She didn't quite raise an eyebrow at him, but he sensed she wanted to. "Are you sure having her here's such a good idea, now we know what she is?"

"We don't know what she is, though," Coulson said immediately. "Aside from a very talented young woman with a lot of empathy and compassion. What kind of message do you think I would be giving her if I told her that we'd found out she was an 084, and then immediately dumped her off the Bus? She had a childhood of being moved at regular intervals to keep her safe, I'm not going to inflict more of the same on her." He looked at May and saw a slight softening of her features. "Besides, I owe her for rescuing me from Raina."

"All right," May said.

She didn't say any more but he knew her quite well enough to know that she was thinking "On your head be it." He didn't care, though. Skye was a valuable member of the team, _his_ team, and if he wanted her on board the Bus, she'd stay on board the Bus, whatever May or anyone else thought.

He turned on his heel and made his way downstairs to Skye's bunk. Knocking on the door brought him a "Come in", and he slid the door aside and saw Skye sitting cross-legged on her bed, her laptop open in front of her as she looked at the details of Agent Avery's record.

"Hey." She gave him a half smile, and he smiled back.

"Hey yourself." He stepped inside and slid the door closed, then gestured at the bed. "May I?"

"Yeah." She turned around as he sat beside her, and gave him a serious look. "I've been thinking over what you told me."

"Oh?" He looked at her more closely, and saw she looked very resolved about something, and felt his heart sink a bit. He suspected he knew what she was going to say.

"Yeah. I don't think I should stay here. I mean, we don't know what might happen, but I doubt it'll be much fun since I'm an 084."

"Skye, that'd be true whether you were here or not. I don't know if you've noticed, but life inside SHIELD doesn't tend to be quiet and relaxing."

She leaned her shoulder against his. "Yeah, AC, I have noticed that, but even so – "

"Even so, nothing," he said firmly. "You are a valuable member of my team and I want you on the Bus. You're not the only one capable of doing unpredictable stuff, you know. You've seen FitzSimmons' gadgets – it's not impossible one of them might malfunction sometime."

She gave him a sceptical look. "Be serious, AC."

"I _am_ serious," he assured her. "Very serious. Who's going to pull off an amazing charade and rescue me from the crazy people if you're not here?"

She shook her head. "SHIELD would've found you eventually."

"Maybe," he said quietly. "But at what expense?"

She gave him a sharp look. "You said they were messing with your head."

"Yes, Raina was, but don't you realise, _you_ were the one who pulled me back from that?" He swallowed, then added, "I was stuck in a nightmare in there, Skye, and it was you who brought me out of it – your voice begging me to come back. You grounded me."

She put a hand up to cover her mouth, and he saw tears in her eyes.

"Hey," he said gently. "Don't cry. I didn't mean to make you cry."

"I know, I know. It's just – " She broke off, shaking her head and he slid his arm around her, pulling her close. "If I hadn't found where Raina had taken you, I still wouldn't know anything about my parents or – " 

She was crying properly now, and Coulson wrapped his other arm around her as well, rubbing her back and murmuring "It's okay, it's okay" into her hair as she sobbed.

Coulson felt helpless: not because Skye was crying on him, but because he didn't know how to help her. Then it occurred to him that there was something he could do, something that would, he hoped, give her a goal to focus on, and make her think she had a future. 

"Skye," he said, pulling back a little so he could see her face. "How would like to become an Agent of SHIELD, not just a consultant?"

**Four**

Coulson was glad that Trip was beside him as May, Skye, and Hunter boarded the _Maribel Del Mar_ ; his anxiety was high enough, and being alone would've been even more stressful. He and Skye might not be as close as they had once been (and he knew May thought he was foolish for shutting her out), but he still worried about her constantly when she was out in the field. Not that he doubted her competence – May had kept him fully informed about Skye's training progress, and he knew she was good – but he could never quite forget what Quinn had done to her, and how he'd nearly lost her.

The revelation that Simmons was also aboard the _Maribel Del Mar_ , and had presumably been brought here by HYDRA because she had previously met Donnie, was a disquieting one as that gave him another person to worry about, and not just the opportunity to worry about Simmons, but how Skye and Trip were going to react to the news that their friend was working undercover for Hydra.

He felt a surge of relief when he heard Skye's voice on the comms telling them, "The threat's been neutralised. Hydra doesn't have him."

"And Agent Simmons?" asked Trip, and Coulson hid a smile, knowing how much Trip liked Simmons.

"Her cover's been maintained. She's safe for now," Skye answered. "They're leaving empty-handed, but we're not."

"What do you mean?" asked Coulson.

"This ship's loaded with crates of stuff, all marked with the HYDRA logo – must be weapons, or equipment, or something. Goodies, anyway."

"That's good news," Coulson said, meaning it. He was disappointed that they'd lost Donnie, but pleased at the thought of 'goodies'. He contacted May directly and ordered her to start organising the crates so they could load up the Bus and clear the ship as quickly as possible.

AC-S-AC-S-AC

They were all back at the Playground, and Mack and Koenig were overseeing the unloading of the HYDRA crates when May stopped by Coulson's office.

"Have you spoken to Skye yet?" she asked.

He frowned at her. "Why would I speak to Skye especially?"

"She was the one who shot Donnie," May said, and Coulson heard a hint of impatience in her voice.

"I thought that was you," he said, feeling some surprise.

"No. Hunter and I were still in the bowels of the ship at that point. Skye was guarding the exit route and she was the one who shot Donnie. She's been monitoring the Moroccan law enforcement channels for hours, waiting to find out if she actually killed him or not. She told me she hit him in the shoulder, which wouldn't necessarily be fatal, but he went straight into the water, the water he'd frozen earlier. So you should talk to her."

Coulson nodded, and May gave him one of her more stern looks. "You know, you'd be doing yourself a favour if you – "

"No." Coulson cut her off. "I'm not telling Skye about the carvings. It's much more important for us to keep monitoring her without her being aware of them."

May shook her head slightly, then said in a resigned tone, "You're the boss."

"Yes I am." He wondered if May heard as much finality in his tone as he did – or if she'd even take any notice if she could hear it. He suspected she wouldn't; he knew she wasn't very happy about their passive monitoring of Skye, and to a certain extent he wasn't either. He suspected that if Skye ever found out, he'd be in a lot of trouble with her, but he didn't intend for her to find out.

After she'd gone, Coulson rubbed a hand over his face, feeling wearier than ever. He'd talk to Skye, but first he needed to talk to Fitz, and that was not a conversation he relished either. It worried him that Fitz had gone to see Ward. Thinking of that, he decided he should check the recording of Fitz's conversation with Ward before he actually talked to the young man – hopefully it would help him to decide how best to approach the matter.

AC-S-AC-S-AC

Coulson had talked to Fitz, then been waylaid by Mack and Trip with questions about the HYDRA 'goodies' they'd brought back from Morocco, then received an encrypted transmission from another undercover agent, so that by the time he had the chance to talk to Skye it was late. Checking the monitor in her bunk, he saw that she was sitting cross-legged on her bed, her laptop open beside her, and that she was hugging her pillow. She seemed to be crying, and he felt a pang of remorse at the sight as he remembered those occasions when he'd comforted her while she cried on his shoulder. 

He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, then made his way from his office down to the bunks. No one else was about, although he could hear Mack's voice in Fitz's bunk, and music coming from Hunter's.

He knocked lightly on Skye's half-open door, but she didn't respond, and he called her name. She started visibly, looking up at him with such a woebegone expression that he didn't hesitate, he just stepped inside her room, then closed the door behind him before moving to her side.

"Skye?"

She tightened her hold on her pillow. "I killed him," she said, barely getting the words out because she was still crying.

Coulson didn't have to ask who she meant, not after his earlier conversation with May. He sat down beside Skye, and was immediately relieved when she abandoned her pillow to hug him instead. He wrapped his arms around her and rubbed her shoulder. He didn't try to soothe her with platitudes, knowing she'd despise him for them, he just kept repeating her name over and over, and waited for her sobbing to subside. 

"Tell me what you found," he said quietly, nodding to the laptop when she pulled away from him to wipe her face.

"The port authorities got in a work gang to break up the ice around the _Maribel Del Mar_ , and they pulled his frozen body out of the water about thirty minutes ago. He was definitely dead."

"What made you decide to shoot Donnie?" he asked. She froze in the act of leaning into him again, then straightened up, hurt in her dark eyes. He cupped her cheek in his palm and titled her face up. "I'm not going to criticise you. I just want you to explain the sequence of events from your point of view. I was aboard the Bus, remember – listening but unable to see."

She nodded, then leaned back against him and he held her as she took a deep breath before speaking.

"Donnie, and Simmons, and some HYDRA guy came out on deck with three or four well-armed men, all in combat gear. The HYDRA guy said something to Donnie, and then he grabbed the rail of the ship with both hands and it started to ice over, and I realised that he was going to freeze the entire ship, not just the door I'd been guarding for May and Hunter. And I knew I had to stop him – but I didn't want to kill him, if I didn't have to, so I shot him. I figured if I hit him in the shoulder it'd be enough to stop him from freezing up the whole ship." She paused and he heard her swallow. "I've been practising with the sniper rifle, and I'd got used to the recoil and everything – but shooting a person, rather than a paper target, is different, and I forgot about the reaction of a bullet hitting a body – the force of the impact span Donnie around and he went over the railing into the harbour."

"What would've happened if you hadn't shot him?" Coulson asked.

Skye straightened up to look at him, a disbelieving expression on her face. "We'd have died," she said in a sharp tone.

"Exactly. You shot Donnie to save three lives: yours, May's, and Hunter's. And you shot him intending to wound, not kill. His death was an unintended side effect of your actions to save others' lives. You didn't shoot to kill, Skye."

"But – " she began.

"No, no buts." He stared at her, willing her to understand what he was telling her. "Sometimes there are no good choices, Skye, so we have to do something we don't really want to in order to ensure worse doesn't happen. If you hadn't shot Donnie, I'd be three agents down today. I cannot see it as a bad thing that I'm not three agents down, especially when two of those agents are you and May."

"Poor Hunter," she said with a weak chuckle.

He smiled. "Hunter has a value to me, too," he told her. "But you and May are my friends as well as my agents, so I can't help minding more that you survived." 

She straightened up again, then mopped her face, before giving him a serious look. "Thank you," she said quietly. "It means a lot that you talked to me about this."

He nodded, pushing himself up to his feet. He was glad to have helped, but now he needed to get back to his office again: the compulsion to carve had been growing stronger while he'd been sitting with Skye, and he didn't know if it was just a coincidence, or a consequence, but he couldn't stay with her any longer.

"I'd better get going," he said, hoping he didn't sound lame. "I've got a pile of paperwork still to get through."

She bit her lip, looking a little disappointed, then nodded. "Of course."

He nodded in return, then turned on his heel and tried not to run as he made his way out of Skye's bunk.

**Five**

When Raina told Coulson that Skye's father was still alive, and that he wanted to see his daughter, Coulson felt his heart rate speed up and he hoped very hard that May was keeping a close eye on Skye. He knew that she'd been trying to find out more about her family for many years, and that if she thought she had the chance to meet him _and_ save Simmons, she'd take it like a shot: Skye had a tendency to impulsiveness that was slowly being trained out of her, but she was still prone to rush in where angels – and wiser SHIELD agents – would fear to tread.

He couldn't give in to Raina's demands, of course – he didn't trust her an inch after what she'd done to him on the orders of the Clairvoyant – and while Garrett might be gone, leopards didn't easily change their spots, and he had no doubt Raina had her own private agenda. He was relieved to think that Agent Morse was embedded in the same part of the HYDRA organisation as Simmons: he could rely on Bobbi to get Simmons out safely, but he felt a pang as he considered how terrifying the situation was shortly going to get for Simmons.

Getting the address for Skye's father out of Raina was easy enough – she was still hoping that he'd take pity on her and take her in, but he'd enough problems with having one traitor in the basement, he didn't want a second one down there, and besides, Raina could be of more use to him out in the world.

"The address Raina gave us is only a few blocks away," May told him as they looked at a map on May's tablet.

"And I thought she chose this place for the ambience," Coulson deadpanned. 

He glanced at May and saw her taking her earbug out of her ear; he followed suit, and she asked, "Remember what Lumley said about Skye?"

"'Wherever she goes, death follows'. Yeah, that was a memorable quote." He hadn't been able to get it out of his head for days, but eventually he'd put it to the back of his mind.

"Look, we know Skye's father's been searching for her all this time. What if _he's_ what Lumley's so afraid of?"

He stared at May. It made more sense that Skye's father had been the reason for all the death, rather than Skye herself. He hadn't forgotten how she'd reacted to Donnie's death, nor could he forget that despite the fact she'd been classified as an 084, she'd never shown that she possessed any powers of any kind. He might suspect she wasn't fully human, given the way the GH-325 hadn't compelled her to carve symbols into walls, but aside from her extraordinary empathy and compassion, she seemed reassuringly normal.

Hunter appeared at May's side before Coulson could express any of his thoughts. 

"Probably a trap, isn't it?" the younger man asked.

"Could be. I'll need you running surveillance. May, check the scanners. Make sure local PD aren't patrolling the area. And Skye – " He turned to speak to the young woman, and realised with a sense of mild panic, that she wasn't nearby. He turned back to May. "Where's Skye?"

AC-S-AC-S-AC

She wasn't answering her comms, which worried Coulson: he didn't know how long she'd been gone, which meant that by now she could easily have made it to the address Raina had given them, and that her father might, even now, have her.

May drove them over to the warehouse, and Coulson did his best not to urge her to go faster.

He found her staring at a framed photograph and she jumped, startled, when he grasped her shoulder, intensely relieved to find her safe and unharmed. 

"So he was here," he said, noticing Skye's heavier breathing and how jumpy she looked. He hadn't quite been sure Raina had been on the level with him.

"Yeah." Skye was staring at him and he maintained eye contact, wondering if she was going to be okay. "I just wanted a glimpse," she told him, and he could understand that only too well. 

He sensed she was close to tears, and observed, "You're having one helluva day, huh?" It was a lame remark, but he wasn't sure what else to say. After their row first thing this morning, and then the conversation that had been interrupted by Raina's phone call, he didn't know whether she'd accept anything from him.

She nodded, the tears coming, and he moved towards her, and felt relief when she stepped straight into his personal space. He wrapped his arms around her, letting her sob, as he held her, one hand on the back of her head, tangling in her hair as he told her, "We'll find him." She was clinging to him tightly, and he whispered, "It's okay" several times, wanting her to know that he was going to do everything in his power to help her.

He heard footsteps behind him and hoped it was May, but Skye twitched out of his arms as Hunter asked, "So, is this a group hug type situation." Coulson swallowed his annoyance at the younger man's bad timing, and lack of tact.

"You find anything?" he demanded.

"Place has been cleared out. Must have left in a hurry. Agent May's checking the back room."

Coulson hid a smile as Skye asked Hunter if he'd been drinking, amused that she was never slow to show the ex-mercenary that he didn't meet her standards for what a SHIELD agent was.

When Hunter leaned in and said, "I can see why she frustrates you," he couldn't help a tiny smile from escaping. Not that Skye did frustrate, or not in a bad way. He admired her courage and determination, even when her tenacity made things difficult for him.

"Agent May, any sign of him?" he asked, choosing not to respond to Hunter's comment.

"No, but there's something you need to see." Coulson glanced at Hunter, then looked at Skye, who was looking concerned. He clasped her upper arm briefly, then led the way out with Skye and Hunter behind him.

AC-S-AC-S-AC

What May had found in the back room had been appalling, Coulson felt, and he wondered how Skye was going to deal with the fact that her father seemed to be a psychotic killer. Unfortunately he didn't have the time or opportunity to talk to her about it immediately; they had to get back to the base – he was expecting Trip to be back with Agents Morse and Simmons soon, and he knew how Morse's presence was going to stir things up. He hoped that Fitz would feel better for having Simmons back; the young man had come out of his shell more thanks to the quiet, steady friendship of Mack, their mechanic, but he knew Fitz still had a tendency to talk to himself at times.

After greeting Morse and Simmons, and listening in amusement to Hunter's tirade at having his ex-wife around, he headed to his office. He wasn't sure where Skye was as she had disappeared straight to her bunk on their return; he would have to get her to come and see him as they had several things to discuss in the wake of the day's events.

Opening his office door he saw the young agent standing at the window, looking out, and he realised he wasn't surprised by the fact that she'd beaten him here. 

"It's good to have Simmons back," she said, without turning around.

He crossed to stand beside her. "Which is why you should be down there," he said.

Skye ignored that. "I know you're gonna go after him."

"Skye – " he began, wondering what to say to this young woman who'd just discovered her father was a murderer.

"No, it's okay. I get it. He's a bad guy." She gave a quick nod. "And right now he has the Obelisk, which is a bad thing."

Coulson couldn't argue with that, but he knew that it wasn't going to be easy for her to have SHIELD pursuing her own father. 

"You know, I spent all my life wondering who he was, and why he left. And after today, I – I just don't care any more." 

He wondered if that was true: Skye was the most caring person he knew.

"All I care about is that we stop him. And I just wanted to let you know that, whatever it takes to do that, I'm in."

She sounded determined, and looked focused, he thought, and wondered if he was going to be doing her any favours by letting her help him to hunt down her father.

He nodded. "That's good to know."

"But if we’re gonna do this, you have to be _completely_ honest with me from now on. No more secrets. No more compartmentalisation. And definitely no more hidden cameras. Whatever's going on, you bring me in. No exceptions."

He bit back a smile. A brave speech for someone who, technically, was only a Level One agent. Then again, he'd done away with Levels in New SHIELD – and it was down to Skye that he had: he'd never forgotten her disdain for the idea that a higher Level agent's life was worth more than that of a lower Level agent's. Not that he'd blamed her for that. 

"Okay."

She looked slightly surprised, as if she'd expected to have more of a fight on the issue. "Okay," she whispered.

"We should probably get started," he told her, and moved towards his desk. She followed him and he sensed her surprise, but she didn't say, "Are you sure?"

He tapped a key on the console on his desk and the back wall screen whirred up towards the ceiling, revealing the wall behind, covered in carvings. He looked at Skye, waiting for her reaction, watching as she moved towards the wall.

"So this is what you've been doing up here," she said.

"Well, it's what I did yesterday," he told her.

She turned quickly, looking rather horrified. "You're kidding?" She looked back at the extent of the carvings.

"I don't know how else to explain it, but it needs to be carved."

"Does it, does it just appear in your mind, like some sort of vision?" She'd turned towards him again. 

"No," he told her, moving to stand beside her. "It just, kinda happens." He realised that was a pretty lame explanation, but he wasn't sure he could explain the compulsion that drove him. "Which is really frustrating because, no matter how much I carve, it still means nothing to me." 

He watched as Skye walked right up to the wall, staring at a section he'd carved with savage intensity, the lines much deeper than most. "I don't even have a theory," he told her as she lifted her hand to trace one of the lines.

"I do," she said quietly, and he wondered at the certainty in her voice.

He frowned as she turned to look at him again. "It's a map."

**Six**

As Skye told him that the symbols were a map Coulson felt the world tilt perilously sideways and he reached out to grab her, seeing alarm on her face. He wondered where the roaring was coming from, and who'd decided to turn out the lights.

The next thing he knew he was lying on the floor of his office, his head in Skye's lap as she sat holding his right hand in hers while her left was splayed over his heart. His face seemed to be wet and it took him a moment to realise that he was crying. He wondered why he was crying, then noticed that the constant pressure that had been in his head ever since first seeing Garrett's carvings had gone.

"Skye?" His voice was a hoarse croak, as if he'd been screaming for hours, and that alarmed him more than his tears.

"Coulson? Thank god." She sounded immensely relieved, and he tried to squeeze her hand to reassure her but was horrified to find his grip was as weak as water.

"What happened?" he croaked.

"I don't know, exactly," she said carefully. "I told you what the symbols were, and the next thing, you collapsed like you'd been poleaxed."

"How long – " he began, and she answered quickly, "Two hours." She swallowed, then added, "I got Simmons to come and check you hadn't had a heart attack or anything."

He felt his eyebrows rise and he tried to fight a wave of panic at the thought of all the rumours that must be circulating at the news that the Director had collapsed.

Skye read his mind, or his panic was more obvious to her than he'd realised, because her hand tightened on his. "Relax. I swore Simmons to secrecy." She chuckled briefly. "She got rather pissed off, actually. Started ranting at me about patient confidentiality."

Coulson managed a brief smile at the thought, then asked, "Are you okay?"

She gave him a disbelieving look. " _I_ am not the one collapsing all over the place."

"To be fair, neither did I," Coulson said. "I only collapsed once, onto the floor."

"Oh you must be feeling okay if you're getting snarky."

He couldn't help noticing that she looked relieved as she said this. "Do you think I can get up?" he asked.

"I don't know. Can you?" She sounded more serious now, and he realised that she was a lot more worried than her demeanour had implied.

"I'd like to try," he offered.

"Sit up first, then," she instructed. "And do it slowly."

She didn't release her grasp on his hand, but she did loosen it a bit as he carefully pushed himself up.

"Was I screaming?" he asked. His throat felt raw.

She lifted her eyebrows. "No."

"Oh."

"Why'd you ask?"

"My throat feels as I've been screaming," he told her.

"Let's get you on the couch, and then I'll get you some water."

It wasn't easy because Coulson's legs seemed to be made of jelly, but between them they got him to the couch, and he collapsed onto it rather than sitting down, then leant his head back into the corner.

"If you feel dizzy, lie down," she told him. "I'll be back in a few."

"Thanks."

She let herself out of the office and Coulson looked over at the wall but the carvings were out of sight again, and he guessed Skye had covered them up before fetching Simmons.

He rubbed his hand over his face, feeling both exhausted and light-headed as he wondered why he'd collapsed as soon as Skye had told him the carvings were a map.

He reached up to loosen his tie, then noticed it was already loose, and his top two shirt buttons were undone. "Helluva day," he muttered, thinking of Raina's revelations, and his own disclosures to Skye.

She came back in, then closed and locked the door. There was a blanket draped over her left arm, a litre bottle of water in one hand, and a tub of ice-cream in the other.

"Ice-cream?" he asked, amused by the sight.

"Thought it might help your sore throat," she told him.

"Thanks." He took the bottle of water first and swallowed several mouthfuls, then set the bottle on the floor beside his leg.

"Do you want some of this?" she asked, tapping the lid of the ice-cream tub.

"Sure." He gave her a smile, and she smiled back, then fished two spoons wrapped in a napkin from her pocket.

"How are you feeling?" she asked as she snapped off the lid.

"Exhausted, and light-headed." He saw her expression and shook his head slightly. "Not from dizziness, but an absence of pressure. I hadn't realised until now that there's been a feeling of something pressing against my mind ever since I first saw Garrett's carvings. But it's gone now."

"I'm glad," she told him, holding out the tub.

"Me too." He glanced over at the wall, then asked curiously. "How do you know it's a map? You've been researching the symbols for weeks, but you never said it was that before."

She shrugged, her mouth full of chocolate fudge ice-cream, then swallowed. "I don't know," she said, and he thought she sounded annoyed by the admission. "But the moment I touched them, I knew. Perhaps I didn't know before because they were only images."

He frowned around his own spoonful of dessert, then swallowed. "Any idea what it's a map of, or where, or – " He broke off and shook his head slightly.

Skye gave him a pensive look and he tilted his head at her enquiringly.

"I think it's a map to another plane," she said carefully.

Coulson stared at her, his spoonful of ice-cream arrested halfway to his mouth. "Another plane?" he asked, then put the spoon in his mouth before the stuff could drip onto his trousers.

"Yep. Another dimension."

"What makes you say that?"

She shrugged. "I honestly don't know." She ate another mouthful, then added, "We'll need the Obelisk to reach it, though."

Coulson stared at her in astonishment. "Are you proposing to go to another dimension?"

She raised her eyebrows at him. "You don't want to, after all this time spent carving the symbols?"

"I – I don't know," he admitted. "The idea kinda freaks me out."

She shifted closer to him, her knee touching his thigh where she sat cross-legged as usual. "I guess it is a freaky idea," she said softly. "But just think, it might be a way for me to find out more about who – or what – I am. If I'm really some kinda alien."

Coulson swallowed. He could understand that she wanted to go there, and the idea of letting her go alone didn't appeal. "I'll come with you," he said.

She smiled. "Thanks." She held out the tub of ice-cream, which they'd been trading back and forth, and he shook his head, then reached down for the bottle of water.

He realised he felt drained, and he wondered if he'd finally sleep properly tonight. "I think I'm gonna crash," he told her, then seeing her look of alarm, amended it. "I mean, I'm going to go to bed."

"Oh, yeah. Probably a good idea," she said quietly. "Can you get there?"

He shrugged. "I hope so."

"I'd better come with you," she said. "It definitely will cause rumours to fly if you collapse in the corridor."

He quirked a half smile at her, and she shook her head, then unfolded herself from the couch, put the ice-cream tub and their spoons on the corner of his desk, then offered her hands. He took them and pushed up as she pulled, and he was relieved to discover he could at least stand up.

Then he slid his hands up her arms and embraced her. "Thank you, Skye," he said softly.

"Any time, AC."

He smiled, inordinately pleased that she'd reverted to her old nickname for him. As they held each other he found himself wishing he'd listened to May and not shut Skye out. He'd missed her so much over the last few weeks.

"Come on, AC," she said, her breath tickling his ear. "Let's go to bed."

He pulled back a little at that, unable to resist smirking at her, and she rolled her eyes, then grinned, and he grinned back. All was not right with the world at large, but somehow all felt right in their little bit of the world: they might be in the dark, but at least they were in the dark together again.


End file.
